Family Circle Cover Recipe - Best Chocolate Fudge Cake

[gayr]

Chocolate Fudge Cake

Makes 12 Servings

Prep: 20 minutes

Bake: 350 Degrees F for 40 minutes

Cake:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, broken up

2-1/2 cups all purpose flour

2-1/4 cups sugar

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

1-1/2 cups sour cream

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Frosting:

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, broken up

1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup sour cream

1/3 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 box (1 pound) confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder

Garnish: chocolate curls; berries

Heat oven to 350 Degrees F. Grease and flour three 9-inch round cake pans.

Cake: In a glass bowl, melt butter and chocolate together in microwave on High until melted and smooth, 1 to 1-1/2 minutes, stirring halfway through. Set aside. On low speed, mix flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl until blended.

Add sour cream, eggs, 1 cup water, chocolate mixture and vanilla; beat 30 seconds on low, until dry ingredients are moistened. Increase to medium; beat 2 minutes. Pour into prepared pans.

Bake at 350 Degrees F. for 40 minutes or until cake layers spring back when pressed.

Cool layers in pans on rack 10 minutes. Remove cakes to rack to cool.

Frosting: In a small glass bowl, melt chocolate in microwave on High for 1 minute. Stir until smooth. Set aside. Beat shortening, butter, sour cream, milk, vanilla, salt, 1 cup of the sugar and the cocoa powder in a medium-size bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in remaining sugar and melted chocolate until thick and smooth.

Place a cake layer on pedestal. Spread with about 2/3 cup frosting. Top with second layer; spread with about 2/3 cup more frosting. Top with remaining layer. Frost top and sides, swirling decoratively. Garnish with chocolate curls and berries.

Recipe Source: Family Circle Magazine

February 2006

Cover Recipe

Have not tried this yet, however, it looks and sounds wonderful. Thought I would share.

 

[mistral]

2 teaspoons baking soda? That sounds like way too much. . .

Let me know when you make this recipe. That amount of baking soda makes me think of the chocolate cake that we had at Romano's Macaroni Grill--beautiful looking but with the flat taste of too much baking soda.

And I think 2 teaspoons would be totally icky if you used an already "dutched" (alkalinized) cocoa. Maybe with regular Hershey's cocoa it would be ok, but I really wonder. . .

 

[michael-in-phoenix]

It would surely react to the 1 1/2 cups of sour cream. Plus, there is baking...

...soda in the baking powder as well.

I still like the recipe for chocolate cake I posted earlier this week.

I think the boiling water on cocoa powder trick came from Cook's Illustrated. It gives the chocolate flavor more punch by releasing more of the cocoa molecules, or something like that.

Michael

 

[gayr]

Mistral, the baking soda is correct. Went to check the recipe to be sure ....>

I made a typo. The recipe is captioned on the cover as "The best Chocolate Cake you've ever tasted." Also, forgot to state it is the recipe of Julie Miltenberger.